Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1919 — Page 2

PIECES OF EIGHT

“JUST A GIRL!"

Synopsis— The man who tells thia story—call him the hero, for short— Is visiting- his friend, John Saunders' British official In Nassau. Bahama islands. Charles Webster, & loCai merchant, completes the trio of friends. Saunders produces a written document purporting to be the death-bed statement of Henry P. Tobias, a successful pirate, made by him in 1859. It gives two spots where two millions and a half of treasure were buried by him and his companions. The conversation of the three friends is overheard by a pock-marked stranger. The document disappears. Saunders, however, has a copy. The hero, determined to seek the buried treasure, charters a schooner. The pockmarked man is taken on as a passenger. On the voyage somebody empties the gasoline tank. The hero and the passenger clash, the passenger leaving a manifesto bearing the signature, “Henry P. Tobias'. Jr.” The hero lands on Dead Men’s Shores. There is a fight, which is followed by several funerals. The hero finds a cave containing the skeletons of two pirates and a massi ve^hest—empty save fo’r a few pieces of eight sca'ttered on the bottom. Tl)e hero returns to Nassau and by good luck learns the location of Short Shrift island. Webster buys the yawl Flamingo, and he and the hero sail for Short Shrift island. As the Flamingo leaves the wharf a young fellow, “Jack Harkaway,” jumps aboard and is allowed to remain. Jack proves an Interesting and mysterious passenger. The adventurers hunt ducks on Andros island, with an eye out for Tobias.

CHAPTER IV—Continued. Besides, I had my wonderful young friend, to whom I grew daily more attached. I found myself feeling drawn to him as I can imagine a young father is drawn to a young son! and sometimes I seemed to see in his eyes the suggestion of a confidence he was on the edge of making me —a whimsical, pondering expression, as though wondering whether he dare to tell me or not. “What is it. Jack?" I asked him for once when, early in our acquaintance, we had asked him w hat we were to call him, he had answered with a laugh: ‘‘Oh, call me Jack —Jack Harkaway. That Is my name when I go on adventures. Tell me your adventure names. I don't want your prosaic every-day names.” “Well,” I had replied. entering into the lad's humor, “my friend here is Sir Francis Drake, and I. well —I’m Sir <Henry Morgan.” “What is it. Jack?” I repeated. But he shook his head. “No!” he replied. “I like you ever eo much —and I wish I could; but I mustn’t.” “Somebody else’s secret again?” I ventured. “Yes!” And he added: “This time It’s mine, too. But —some day perhaps; who knows? —” He broke off in boyish confusion. “All right, dear Jack,” I said, patting his shoulder, “take your own time. We’re friends anyway.” “That we are,” responded the lad, with a fine glow 1 . I mustn’t be too hard on Charlie, fer Charlie had another object in his trip besides duck. As a certain poet brutally puts it, he had anticipated also “the hunting of man.” In addition, though it is against the law of those Britannic islands, he had promised me a flamingo or two for decorative purposes. However, flamingoes and Tobias alike kept out of gunshot and, as the week grew toward its end. Charlie began to grow a little restive. “It looks,” he murmured one evening, as we had completed our fourteenth meal of roast duck, and were musing over our after-duck cigars, “it looks as if I am not going to have any use for this." He had taken a paper from his pocket. It was a warrant with which he had provided himself, empowering him to arrest the said Henry P. "Tobias, or the person passing under that name, on two counts: First, that of seditious practices, with intent to spread treason among his majesty’s subjects, and, second that of willful murder on the high seas. Charlie put the warrant back into his pocket and gazed disgustedly across the creek, where the loveliest of young moons was rising behind a frieze of the homeless, barbaric brush. “There was never such a place in the world,” he asserted, “to hide in—or get lost In—or to starve in. I have often thought that it would make the most effective prison in the world.” - Tile young moon rose and rose, while Charlie sat in the dusk of our shanty, like a meditative mountain, saying nothing, the glowing end, of his cigar occasionally hinting at the circumference of his face. “I’ll get him, all the same,” he said presently, coming out'of a sort, of trance, in which, as I understood later, his mind had been making a geographical survey of our neighborhood, going up and down every creek and corner on a radius of fifty miles. \ SO 'we sought Our respective dots; but I had scarcely begun to undress when a foolish accident for which I was responsible happened, an accident that might have had serious con-

BEING THE AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF A TREASURE DISCOVERED IN THE BAHAMA ISLANDS IN THE YEAR 1903. NOW FIRST GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC

By RICHARD LE GALLIENNE

Jack Looked Up for a Moment and Caught Charlie’s Wondering Look.

morning that Charlie at last had to waken me. “What do you think?” were his first words. . “Why, what?” I asked, sitting up and wincing from my wounded shoulder. “Our young frie«d has skipped in the night! Gone off on that little nigger sloop that dropped in here yesterday afternoon, I guess.” . “You don’t mean it?" “No doubt of it —I wonder whether you’ve had the same thought as I had. You know I always said there was a mystery about that boy? Did you notice the way he bound your shoulder last night?” “What of it?” “Did you ever see a man bind a wound like that?’’ “What do you mean?” “I mean simply that the mystery about our Jack Harkaway was just this: Jack Harkaway was no boy at all—but just a girl; a brick of daredevil girl!” V CHAPTER V. Better Than Duck. Charlie Webster’s discovery—if discovery it was—of “Jack Harkaway’s” true sex seemed so far plausible in that it accounted not only for much that had seemed mysterious about him and bls manner, but also (though this I did not mention to Charlie) it accounted for certain dim feelings of my own, of which, before, I had been scarcely conscious. But we were not long left to continue our speculations, being presently interrupted by the arrival of exciting news in«the form of a note from Father Serapion. Father Serapion’s note simply confirmed his conjecture that it was Tobias who had bought at Behring’s Point and that he waft probably Somewhere in the network of creeks and marl in our neighborhood. Charlie thought the news over.

Copyright by Doubleday, Page A Company

sequences, and which, ns a matter of fact did have—though not at the moment. Neglecting everything a man should do to his gun when he is finished with it for the day, I had left two cartridges in it, left the trigger on the hairbrink of eternity, and other enormities for which Charlie presently, and quite rightly, abashed me with profanity; in short, my big toe tripped over the beast as it stood carelessly against the wall of my cabin, and, as it fell, I received the contents in the fleshy part of my shoulder. The explosion brought the whole crew out of their shanty, in a state of gesticulating nature and, as Charlie, growling like a bear, was helping to bring first aid, suddenly our young friend Jack —whose nrmantic youth preferred sleeping outside in a hammock slung between two palm trees — put him aside. “I know better how to do this than you. Sir Francis,” he said, laughing.' “Let’s have a look at your medicine chest, and give me the lint quick.” So Jack took charge and acted with such confidence and skill—finally binding up my wound, which was but a slight one—that Charlie stood by dumbfounded and with a curious soft look in his face which I didn’t understand till later. Then Jack looked up for a moment and caught Charlie's wondering look; and It seemed to me that he changed color and looked frightened. “Sir Francis is jealous," he said; “but I’ve finished now. I guess you’ll sleep all right after that dose I gave you. Good night. . . .” And he slipped away. Jack had proved himself a practiced surgeon and, as he predicted, I slept well —so well and so far into next

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER, IND.

*TII tell you what we’ll do,” he said presently. ‘’l’m going to leave you here —and I'm going to charter the sponger out there. Turner’s sound has two outlets; this and Goose river, ten miles down the shore. Now, If Tobias is inside here he can only get out either down here or down Goose river. I am going down in the sponger to the mouth of Goose river, to keep watch there, and you must stay where you are and keep watch here. Between the two of us a week will starve him out.” So it was settled, and presently Charlie went along with two of his best guns and Sailor, in the rowboat, and I saw him no more for a week. At the end of the week the wind was blowing strong from the west and the high. About noon we caught sight of triumphant sails making up the river. It was Charlie back again. “Got him!” was all he said, as he rowed ashore. Sailor was with him in the rowboat, but I noticed that he was limping, going on three leg’s. ~~ ” “Yes!” said Charlie. '-“lt’s lucky for Tobias he only 7 got Sailor’s foot, or, by the living God I’d have stood my trial for manslaughter, or whatever they call it. It’ll soon be all right, old man,” he said, taking Sailor’s wounded paw in his hand, “soon be all right.” Sailor wagged his tail vigorously, to show that a gunshot through one of his legs was a mere nothing. “Yes!” said Charlie, as we sat at lunch in the shack, under the tamarind tree; “we’ve got him safe there under decks all right; chained up like a buoy. If he can get away, I’ll believe in the devil.” “Won’t you tell me about it?” I asked. “Not much to ' |fll; too easy altogether. I waited a couple of days at the mouth of Goose river. Then I got tired and left the sponger with the captain and two or three men, while I went up the river with a couple of guns and Sailor, and a man to pole the skisf —just for some duck-shooting, you know. We lay low for two days on the marshes and then Sailor got sniffing the wind one morning, as if there was something around he didn’t care much for. He grew more and more excited and, at last, as we neared a certain mangrove copse to which all the time he had been pointing, he barked two or three times and I let him go, . Poor old fellow!” As he told the story. Sailor, who seemed to understand every word, rubbed his head against his master’s hand. “He went into the mangroves, just as he’d go after duck, but he’d hardly gone in when there were two shots and he came out limping, making for me. But by this I was close up to the mangroves myself, and in another minute I was inside; and there.was Tobias—his gun at his shoulder. He had a pot at me, but before he could try another I knocked him down with my fire and — Well, we’ve got him all right. And now you can go after your treasure as soon as you like. I’ll take him over to Nassau and you can fool around for the next month or so. Of course we’ll need you at the trial, but that won't come off for a couple of months. Meanwhile, you can let me know where you are, in case I should need to get hold of you,” “All right, old man,” I said, “but I wish you were coming with me.” “I’ve got all the treasure I want,” laughed Charlie. “Send me word where you are, as soon as you get a chance; and good luck to you, old chap, and your doubloons and pieces of eight I” Then he walked down to his rowboat and soon he was aboard the sponger. Her sails ran up and they were off down stream- —poor Tobias, manacled, somewhere between decks. “See you in Nassau!” I shouted. “Right-o!”

Book 111

CHAPTER I. In Which We Gather Shells—and Other Matters. With Charlie gone and duck-shoot-ing not being one of my passions, there was nothing to detain me in An ? dros. Sb we were soon under way, out of the rifhr, and heading north up the western shore of the big monotonous island. We had some fifty miles to make before we reached Its northern extremity—and, all the way, we seldom had more than two fathoms of water, and the coast was the same ihterminable line of mangroves and thatch palms, with occasional clumps of pine trees, and here and there the mouth of a creek, leading into duckhaunted sn&mps. At last wj? came to a little foamfringed cay; .}rhere It was conceivable that the Shyest and rarest shell would choose to make its home —a tiny aristocrat, driven out of the broad tideways by the coarser ambitions and the ruder strength of great molluscs that, feed and grow fat and house

themselves In crude convolutions of uncouthly striving horn. It was impossible to imagine a cay better answering to my conchologist’s description of Short Shrift island. Its situation and general character, too, bore out the surmise. On landing, also, we found that it answered in two important particulars to Tobias’ narrative. We found, as he had declared, that there was good water there for passing ships. Also, we found, in addition to the usual scrub, that cab-bage-wood trees grew there very plentifully, particularly, as he said, on the highest part of the Island. So, having talked it all over with Tom, I decided that here we would stay for a time and try our luck. But, first, having heard from the sponging captain that he was en route for Nassau, I gaye him a letter to Charlie Webster, telling him of our whereabouts, in case he should have sudden need of me with regard to Tobias. The reader may recall that Tobias’ narrative in reference to his second “pod” of one million dollars had run: “On the highest point of this Short Shrift Island is a large cabbage-wood stump, and twenty feet south of that stump is the treasure, buried five feet deep and can be found without difficulty.” But which was the highest point? There were several hillocks that might claim to be that —all about equal in height. However, as the high points of the Island were only seven in all, it was no difficult matter to try them all out, one by one. as we had plenty of time and plenty of hands for the work. For, of course, it would have been idle to attempt any concealment of my object from the crew. Therefore, I took them from their shell-gathering and, having duly measured out twenty feet south from each promising cabbage-wood stump, set them to work. They worked with a will, for I promised them a generous share of whatever we found. Alas ! it was an inexpensive promise, for, when we had duly turned up the ground, not only twenty feet, but thirty, forty and fifty feet, not only south but north, east and west of the various cabbage-wood stumps on the seven various eminences, we were none of us the richer by a single piece of eight! Then we tried the other cab-bage-wood stumps on lower ground, and any other likely-looking spots, till, after working for nearly a fortnight, we must have dug up most of the .island. And then Tom came to me with the news that our provisions were beginning to give out. As it was, he said, before we returned to Nassau, we should have to put in at Flying Fish Cove —a small settlement on the larger island some five miles to the nor’ard —for the purchase of various necessities, “All right, Tom,” I said, “I guess the game is up! Let’s start out tomorrow morning. You- may as well have your sucking fish back, Tom,” I said, laughing in self-disgust. “I shall have no more need of it. I am through with treasure hunting.” “I’d keep it little longer, sar,” answered Torif; “you never know.” I had made up my mind to start on the homeward trip early the following morning, but something happened that very evening to change my plans. I had dropped into the little settlement’s one store, to buy some tobacco, the only kind that Charlie Webster declared fit to smoke. I stayed chatting with the storekeeper—a lean, astute-looking Englishman, with the un-English name of Sweeney—who made a pretty good thing of selling his motley merhandise to the poor natives, on the good old business principle of supplying goods of the poorest possible quality at the highest possible prices. While he was attending a little group of customers I ha,d wandered toward the b&ck of the store, curiously examining the thousand and one commodities which supplied the strange needs of humanity here in this lost corner of the world; and, thus occupied, I was diverted by a voice like sudden music, a voice oddly rich and laughing and confident for such grim and sinister surroundings. It w r as one, too, which I seemed to have heard before, and not so very long ago. W T hen I turned in its direction I was immediately arrested, as one always is by any splendor of vitality ; for a startling contrast indeed —to the spiritless, furtive figures that had been coming and going hitherto —was this superb young creature, tall and lithe, with proudly carried head on glorious shoulders. Her skin was a golden olive, and it had been hard to say which was the more intensely black —her hair, or the proud eyes which, turning presently in my direction, seemed to strike upon me as with an actual impact of soft fire.

An entrancing girl and an ancient gold piece. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

National Anthems.

"The Star-Spangled Banner” is now regarded as our national anthem; that of England. “God Save the King;” France. “The Marseillaise.” The other allies apparently have no distinguishing title for their national airs. The national iir of Italy is known to us simply as the “Italian National Hymn" and that of Portugal as the “National Air of Portugal.” etc.

Road to Wealth.

We’ve often thought what a pity It is that a man can’t dispose of his experience for as much as it cost him.— Eskridge Independent. ■

CLASSIFIED “HOUSEHOLD BOOKS” REVEAL ALL UNWISE SPENDING AND ECONOMIES

A Household Budget Would Prevent This Worry and the Empty Pocketbook.

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) Would you like to know where that $5 bill that was in your purse yesterday went? Would you like to know why your last month’s allowance did not hold out so you could have the new hat you -wanted and really needed? Would you like to know how much money you spend a year on food? Of course, every housewife would like to know. Why don’t you find out? “Just wondering” will never tell you facts. A business man does not “just wonder whether his business is paying or not. His books tell him. But you say since your books would show money spent and never money being made, you wouldn’t have the satisfaction the business man realizes at the end of the year. You are dealing wfth much more satisfying results than the business man. You are facing daily the results of your work. The home, in its completeness or its incompleteness, its order or its disorder, its system or its lack of system, answers you, but it does not tell you whether you are getting value received for the energy and money expended. Is that Important? Are the questions pertinent that you ask yourself concerning the amount of money it costs you to live, the amount you spend on essentials, and the amount you spend on things you would be better without? If they are, then It Is important and necessary that you keep account of the money spent, in order that those questions can be answered. Accounts Must Be Accurate. Accounts are of practically no value if they are not accurate. If you are not willing to put down everything for which you spend, if you do not intend to spend a little time-and thought on the subject of accounts, do not start; for, like everything else worth while, It requires energy and thought. Keeping accounts is a peculiar type of burden. If done correctly, it lessens other burdens. In keeping accounts, if you know the questions you want answered the time you spend in the daily routine Is sure to be decreased. How will you go about keeping your accounts? Not by a haphazard method nor yet one with too much detail, for either evil will make them lose their interest and value long before you can expect results. Three Plans Suggested. Three plans of keeping accounts are commonly suggested by economists. Any one of them will work out successfully, according to home-economics specialists of the United States department of agriculture. The first has the advantage of taking little thought or time when accounts are entered, but on the other hand it does require more time on the day of reckoning at the end of the month. The second requires a little more time In the daily setting down, but is more logical and more businesslike and requires much less time at the. end of the month.

OF INTEREST to the HOUSEWIFE

Have play clothes for the children. • * * Never use for the skin anything but the purest soap. Canvas gloves when paraffined are useful in housework. To cool a hot dish in a hurry, place It in a vessel full of cold salt water. A little vinegar put to the water in which eggs are poached will keep them white and prevent them from spreading.

The first method, itemized as below: Date. Amount. Material. Cost. Dec. 51 pound Prunes SO.IB Dec. 51 pair Hose .50 Farmers’ Bulletin 964, Issued by the United States department of agriculture, suggests a grouping of expenditures which is logical, yet not cumbersome in its detail. After you have kept your accounts for a time you will perhaps originate some other classification which may satisfy your needs more fully. This is a suggestive outline, how*ever, that bears study and will aid in drawing up your other plan. ** r - w I. Food: (1) Animal; (2) Fruits and Vegetables; (3) Cereal Products; (4) Other Groceries. 11. Clothing. 111. Household Furnishings. IV. Running Expenses. V. Advancement: (1) Recreation; (2> Education; (3) Benevolences; (4> Incidentals; (5) Savings. Then In your account book you will have a record like the one in the “box’* accompanying this article. At the end of the month, the sum of the entries in the column headed “Cost” will show your total expenditures, and the other totals will appear in the special columns. Cards in Third Method. The third method of keeping accounts is by means of a card system. It varies little from the method already given, except that the headings are placed on cards instead of in a book. On one card would be the heading “Food, 35 per cent, $58.30” (or whatever percentage of the income planned for in the budget). On the other cards would be “Clothing... per cent. Household Furnishings, ... per cent, $... Running Expenses, ... per cent, $..., and Advancement, ... per cent, $...” If a general summary for the month is desired a card with all the headings could bear the totals taken from the various cards. At the end of the year, the month’s totals could be summarized and kept for reference. The woman who keeps accounts will know after a little experience just ■what information she wishes and can adapt any of these methods to her own needs. This will be easy to total at the end of the week, month, or year, and thus will give total expenditures, but will not tell you at a glance in what line you should economize or answer the question, “How much did I spend this year on clothes?” A summary may be made, however, In which each item is entered in its proper column at the end of each month or at the end of the year. Classifying an Entry. The second method includes classification as the Item is put down. It requires a larger book, such as an ordinary account book, so that all the group headings may be across the two pages facing each other. For the following month’s Items, the tops of the next pages may be cut off so the headings on the first page may be used again.

Place a large sponge in the bottom of your umbrella jar. * * * Soap rubbed on the screens and screen strips prevent sticking. • • * If with milk instead of water ipustard will not get dry, but will keep nice and fresh until it is all used UP - A good way to tell when ham H fried enough is by the fat. When the fat is brown (not burned) the ham is done. • • • If every farm home would keep asupply of pop corn and a popper convenient fewer nickels would be spent for less wholesome knickknaeks and more enjoyable evenings would be spent around the family hearth